Skip to main content

Where Should Science Bloggers Look For Traffic?

The Census of Science Bloggers 2011 asked, Excluding search engines, what is your primary traffic driver? After eliminating for single instances and some standardization, the breakdown is as follows:

Twitter (70)
Facebook (59)
Links from Other Blogs (45)
Reddit (14)
ResearchBlogging (13)
Feed Subscriptions (10)
Google+ (8)
Commenting on Other Blogs (7)
Science Blog Network (7)
Return/Direct (4)
StumbleUpon (4)
Tumblr (3)
FriendFeed (2)
LinkedIn (2)
MetaFilter (2)

Gee. Twitter and Facebook top the list. What a surprise. Well yes, confirming what we already know isn't that useful (unless you're not already syndicating your content to Twitter and Facebook). But keep in mind that this is a list of primary traffic drivers, which means that each site on the list has the potential to send you more traffic than any other source. The trick is knowing how to tap that potential.


What are we really talking about then? Because there are trade-offs in time and energy, and if you're like me, both of those are in short supply. I look at that list and think, I'd love to maximize my Twitter and Facebook potential, but frankly, to do so would require more time and effort than I'm willing to devote to those particular websites. I'm not interested in being on Facebook. Not really. And while I find Twitter more appealing than FB, again, I'd rather be doing something else. But still, I'm no expert in either Twitter or Facebook, so I couldn't tell you how to maximize your traffic from either of those sources. That would be useful information.


Going down the list (subscription link to my blog feed is prominently displayed, check; I don't have a lot of time to comment on other blogs, not checked; I'm on a network so links from other blogs is covered, check; I'm going to join Google+ any day now, check; etc.) I see something that I am an expert in, something that I can share with you how to turn into a primary traffic driver for your blog. That site is Reddit, and while it may seem very confusing at first, it's the primary traffic driver that fits my schedule best (because it doesn't require my constant attention), and it's actually quite simple to understand/navigate once you get the hang of it. I've even already written up the how to: Science Blogging and Reddit

So you see. That was useful after all. Now all I need is for someone to explain FriendFeed to me.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If You Build It,...

Field of Science is a science blog network. FoS is so named because Field of Science is a good, practical name for a website about science, but also--thanks to a certain movie--said name evokes illusions that are, more or less, analogous to what FoS is all about . . . FoS is home to bloggers who are doing actual science and whose blogging is clearly informed by their work. If you are a science blogger and your blog is powered by Blogger (or you wouldn't mind switching over to Blogger), and you are interested in joining FoS , complete an application and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. If you want to know more about the nuts, bolts and actuals, watch this presentation .
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Wave of Science Blogging?

One can imagine science bloggers would be a (the) primary beneficiary in a landscape where Google ranks sites based on the correctness of factual information provided by the [blog] .  What's more, it is not a stretch to conclude that science bloggers could very well be in the vanguard of a new wave of bloggers who earn Google’s trust by blogging within the confines of what is known. The news that Google is working on a system of ranking sites based on the quality of their facts should be greeted by science bloggers everywhere as a game-changer.
Post a Comment
Read more

Are Female Science Bloggers More Likely To Blog Anonymously Than Male Science Bloggers?

Google+'s real name policy sparked a lively debate in the science blogosphere. On the side of anonymity it was observed that women risk more than men when they use their real names. We know that women experience 25 TIMES the amount of harassment online that men do. I light of this blanket disparity in risk you might expect to find--or even assume--that the percentage of women in science blogging anonymously is greater than that of their male counterparts. Sifting through the Census of Science Bloggers data I realized I had a sample with which to test this assumption. But to get there I first had to answer another burning question: I wonder what the overall gender ratio is among science bloggers?   The answer, based on the census data, is approximately 2 male science bloggers for every 1 female science blogger. Again, based on the census sample, 15% of all science bloggers post anonymously. Now does that percentage change when you divvy the sample up into male and female?
1 comment
Read more